KDU University College Up Their Game With Consultancy Arm

(The GameZone Section at the Penang TechDome as curated and designed by Daikaiju Studios, KDU University College – School of Computing and Creative Media.

KDU University College’s renowned Game Development Department or simply known as ‘Glenmarie Games’ ended 2016 with a bang with a newly established development, consultancy & commercialisation initiative. This concept is conceived as part of KDU’s School of Computing and Creative Media (SCCM) to be a developmental launch pad for Intellectual Property development (IP), content creation and commercialisation of student-led projects. This arm is aptly named ‘Daikaiju Studios’, which translates to 'Giant Monster' in Japanese and are, in Japanese entertainment lore, powerful forces of nature that impacts the world - which the studio intends to do. The metaphor also provides the studio with a thematic source which whence it can draw inspiration for its future developments from.

Daikaiju Studios provides a platform for SCCM academics and students of the Game Development programme to delve into digital content creation for actual industry projects with the intent to develop, design and produce commercially viable content for local and international consumption.

The studio was involved recently with the Penang Tech Centre, where the Game Development Section within the Tech Dome Penang Science Centre was conceived, designed and setup by the studio members comprising of SCCM academics. Tech Dome is an initiative by the Penang State Government to create a hub for technology learning and exchange of ideas. The Game Development Section, called the Game Zone contains the history of video games; information about the entire global game development industry as well as the growth of the South East Asian and the Malaysian Game Development scene and a walk down memory lane with actual consoles such as the Atari 2600 Home Video Game Console (1977) and ColecoVision Console (1982) on display; also included is a visual storyboard about how the game development industry functions; and 3 actual old-school playable arcade machines.

Located at the geodesic dome of KOMTAR, visitors to this science center will discover the exciting world of technology and the science of how they work by exploring the world-class exhibits in its galleries.

Dr Khong Yoon Loong, Chief Executive Officer of Penang Tech Centre Berhad, states, “We are very impressed with how the whole Games Zone at Tech Dome Penang has been put together on short order of time by the Games Development team at KDU University College Glenmarie Shah Alam. This is only possible because they are very knowledgeable on all aspects of games development and have good connections within the games industry. The design of the Games Zone is appealing, informative and interactive. We have been getting very good feedback from our visitors.”

According to Mr. Yee I-van, Daikaiju Consultancy and Commercialisation’s Programme Leader, “This was an ideal avenue to lend our knowledge and expertise to not only curate the information but also to design the panels and flow of the entire game development section to look visually stunning and not completely weighed down by text. We also managed to obtain the vintage game consoles for display that would certainly jog the older generation of gamers down memory lane. It was a great and fun project that involved many of the game development staff members who occasionally yearn for tasks other than teaching.”

“This is just one of the projects that our Game Development Consultancy arm has handled. We also managed to secure two Game Development IPs and are looking to also commercialise more student projects. This is our next step in growing the Bachelor of Game Development programme – so that we are not only producing capable talents for the fast growing Malaysian Game Development industry but also ensuring that our staff and students are actively involved in producing and securing industry-related projects. One of the KEY unique selling points of the game development degree programme is that the academic staff is industry-trained by practice and heavily involved with the industry, with the ability to produce industry standard content. Daikaiju Studios was developed with that mission and concept in mind,” adds Mr. Tan Chin Ike, the Head of School.